Carbonizing and revivifying retort



LSZO R. VACHIER CARBONIZING AND BEVIVFYING RETORT Filed Dec. 17. 1925 2 sheets-sheet 1 july 22, 1924.

July 22, 1924.

R. VACHIER CARBONIZING AND REVIVIFYING RETORT Filed Dec. 17, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 (atto: e146 RAFAEL' 'VACHIER, OEF- BATON ROUGE, LO''ISANAn CRBONIZING AND REVIVIFYING RETORT'.

Application mea December 17,1923. sum1 No. 681,251.

To all whom it may concern.'

13e it known that I, RAFAEL VAomR, a cltizen of the United States, residing at Baton Rouge, parish of. East Baton Rouge, and State of Louisiana, have inventedl certaln new and useful lmprovements in Carbonizing and Revivifying Retorts, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to carbonizing and reburning furnaces or kilns, and has for one of its objects to provide a kiln which is particularly adapted for the initial production or for the revivilication of mineral and vegetable filtering and decolorizing carbons, and similar materials, such forexample as kieselghur, and the like.

A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of the class described,

in which the carbonizing or revivifying process may be carried 'on continuously.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of the class described in which the revivication of spent vdecolorizing carbons -may be carried on,

without the danger of breaking down such carbons and rendering them useless.

A still further object of the invention is to provide Aan apparatus of the class described which will be simple in construction, comparatively' inexpensive 'to vmanufacture and install and more vefficient in operationl than those which have been heretofore proposed. Y

With the above and otherV objects in view which `will appear as the description proceeds, the'invention consists inthe novel details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, ,more fully hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which ,like reference characters designate like parts in all the views;

AFigure 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of a furnace or kiln constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2"is a fragmentary 4end elevational view of the parts shown in Fig. 1, as seen from the left of the latter figure;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional plan view, taken approximately on the plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking down; and i 0 Fig.A 4 is a detail vertical sectionalview through the dust collector illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3.

In the said drawings the numeral 5 indicates a furnace ,or oven, preferably constructed of brick or other refractory material, provided with a combustion chamberl 6, which may be divided by the horizontal baie wall 7, substantially as shown in Fig. 1, and whichv furnace may be fired in any suitable manner, as for example, by means of an industrial oil or fluid fuel burner, indicated diagrammatically at- 8. The said furnace is provided with a suitable stack 9, communicating with the top thereof to lead off the products of combustion, and it is also provided with an auxiliary due or passage 10, 'controlled by a suitable damper 11, leading to an air heating. chamber 12, associated with a predrying drum 13. A pipe 14 leads from the air heating chamber 12 to the stack 9 to carry off the hot gases after they have performed their work in heating the air within the chamber 12, as will presently appear.

The predryer drum 13 preferably takes the form of a metal cylinder,v rotatably mounted upon suitable supports or rollers driven from 'any `source of power, not shown.

rlhe'ends of the said cylinder or drum 13 extend respectively into the housings, 17 and 18, and maybe provided with suitable gasti'ght joints, nots-hewn. 'The housing or receptaclefl? is` provided with a vsuitable feed hopperlf), which communicates with a chute 20, whereby thecarbon material may be introduced into the predrying drum 13, as will likewise appear more fully" below. rll"he housing 17 1s further provided with a plurality of baille plates or members, 21 and 22, which serve to breakup the lair 'currents travelling through the said housing, and to thereby cause the deposition of such carbon particles as may be carried back into the said housing by the said air currents. The said housing is also provided with an exhaust pipe or passage'24, in which is mounted an exhaust fan 25, which may be driven by means of a pulley 26, from any suitable source of power not shown.

The end of the-drum 13, which enters the housing 17, constitutes the inlet end, while icc lll@

into the longitudinally tutes the discharge end, the said drum being preferably inclined slightly, -as shown, so that when rotated the carbon material will `be constantly fed from the higher end to troughs 33, as will be clear from Figs. 1, 2

and 3, of the drawings. The said feed troughs 33 are each provided with a suitable -conveyor 34, which may be driven in any suitable manner as, for example, by means of the bevelled gears 35 and 36 from a shaft 37, provided with the pulley 38, adaptedto receive power from any suitable source not shown. It will be noted that the troughs 30 and 33 are covered so as to prevent the car' bon particles from escaping therefrom and becoming lost. v

Each of the troughs 33 discharges into a plurality of vertically arranged retort tubes 40, which tubes extend downwardly through the top wall 41 of the furnace, the hori- `Zontal baffle 7 and the bottom wall 42, as will be clear from Fig. 1. The said tubes may be, say from 4 to 10 inches in internal diameter, and 10 feet or more in length, and they are provided at their lower ends with suitable discharge or sluice valves 44, whereby the discharge of the carbon -material therefrom may be controlled, as by the'y rod member 45, extending outside the furnace walls.

The said tubes discharge into a trough 46, which may be partially filled with water, as shown in Fig. 1, to provide a water seal whereby air may be prevented from becoming entrained within the retort tubes to the end that combustion of the carbon therein will be prevented. The said trough 46 vdischarges into a receptacle 47, which may be provided with a suitable agitator 48, and with an outlet pipe 49, through which the -carbon -material may be withdrawn and transferred to its point -of'use in the well known manner. The air heater 12 may be of any suitable' construction, but is here shown as :comprising a closed chamber o r housing through which the hot gases from the combustion chamber may pass from the pipe 11, the said chamber being provided with a plurality' of tubes. or pipes 50, passing through the front and back walls thereof and through which 1,5eaeoo surrounding the tubes, and it will then be drawn through the housing 18 into the drum f 13 and thence through the housing 17 to theV discharge pipe 24. While in the drum 13, it will be brought into contact with the carbon material therein, and will serves to evaporate the moisture contained in the said material, and to thus predry the same.

This predrying is an important feature of the invention, since it has been found in actual practice that when the moist carbon material is introduced directly into retort. tubes, which are substantially red hot, the steam which is liberated tends to break down the structure of the carbon and render it unfit for further filtering #and decolorizing use. Furthermore, the-friction of the wet materialpassing through the various parts of the apparatus is very great and this is substantially eliminated by first drying the material in the manner above indicated.

`The operation of the apparatus will be clear from the foregoing, but it will be briefly summarized as follows. M v

Carbon material, whether it be material from which decolorizing carbon is to be initially prepared or whether it be decolorizing carbon which has already been used and which it is desired to revivify, is placed in the hopper 19, from which it is fed through the chute 20 into the upper end ofthe drum 13. This said drum being rotated by means of the pinion 15 and gear 16, carbon will travel along its interior surface to the discharge end thereof, while being subjected to the drying action of the heated air sucked through the said drum by the exhaust fan 25. Any carbon 'particles which may be drawn back into the housing 17y will be effectively stopped by the baies 21 and 22, and will be deposited in the lower portion of the said housing 17, from which'y they may be withdrawn at will through the open ing of the valve with which the said hous-l ing is provided.

The dried carbon will be discharged at the lower end of the drum 13 into the housing 18, 'from whence it will pass through the discharge pipe 28 into the transverse trough 30.Y The conveyor 31 in the said. trough will move the said carbon along the interior.

thereof and discharge it into the various longitudinally extending troughs,33, where it will in turn be moved by means of 4conveyors :34 to the various vopenings leading to the retort., tubes 40. It will pass down through these latter tubes and'l the valves 44 being closed, .will completely fill the latter so as to 'exclude allair therefrom, whereupon it will be subjected to the usual revivifying or burning temperature of between 1400 an llO i600 degrees lz". After the apparatus is once started, the valves 44 may be manipulated in such a manner as to permit of a substantially continuous How of the carbon through the various parts of the apparatus, always maintaining the. retort tubes 40 full of carbon so that the air may be excluded therefrom.

The burned or reviviied material is discharged from the lowerends of the tubes 40 into the trough 46, from which it is carried by the water flowing therein into the mixing tank 47, from whence it may be pumped to the point Where it is to be-used.

lt will further be noted that the dow of carbon through the retort tubes, while in its heated condition, is due solely to the action of gravity which has a tendency to prevent any grinding action which might result from the employment of mechanical means for moving the carbon through said tubes, with the resultant impairment of the physical structure of the carbon, whereby it might be rendered useless for further tiltering and decolorizing purposes.

ln order to further dry the carbon before it is ,introduced into the retort tubes, if desired; a manifold or header 56 may be connected by means of pipes 57 to each of the troughs 33, and it may be in communication through a pipe 58 with the stack 9, whereby a certain amount of air circulation within the feeding troughs 33 will be set up. ln order to prevent the escape of carbon particles through this portion of the apparatus when it is employed, a separating chamber or catch-all 60 may be interposed in the pipe 58, which chamber, as isbest shown in Fig. 4, is provided with-'the bames 6l and 62. and with'the water spray pipes 63 and 64, whereby any particles of carbonl which may enter the said chamber may be separ ted from the air and deposited therein. 'l ey may be withdrawn from the said chamber by the discharge pipe or passage 55, as will be readily understood.

While one form of the invention has been illustrated and described, it is obvious that those skilledl in the art may vary the details of construction as well as the arrangement of parts, without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore it is not wished to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be required by the accompanying claims.

"What is claimed is:

l. ln an apparatus of the class described, a combustion chamber; a plurality of retert tubes in said combustion chamber; a predrying chamber comprising an inclined rotatable drum; means for feeding carbon material into, said predrying chamber;

means tor producing a How of air through gig.

said predrying chamber; means for heating said air; and means for feeding the carbon material from said predrying chamber to said retort tubes.

2. ln an apparatus of the class described, acombustion chamber; a plurality of retort tubes in said combustion chamber; a predrying chamber comprising an inclined rotatable drum; means for feeding carbon material into said predrying chamber; means for producing a flow of air through said predrying chamber; means adjacent one end of said drum for heating said air; means for leading a portion of the products of combustion from said combustion chamber to said air heating means; and means forieeding the carbon material from said predrying chamber to said retort tubes.

3. lin an apparatus for producing and reviviying i-ltering and decolorizing carbons, a combustion chamber provided with a stack; a plurality of rows of substantially vertical retort tubes passing through said combustion chamber through which carbonmaterial may pass by gravity; closed troughs connected to the inlet ends of the tubesl in each row; conveyer means in said troughs for feeding carbonl material there through to said tubes; connections `between said stack and said troughs for creating a circulation of air in the latter; and a liquid seal associated with the discharge ends of said tubes. p

4. In an apparatus for producing and revivifying filtering-and decolorizing carbons, a combustion chamber provided with a stack; a plurality of'rows of substantially vertical retort tubes passing through said combustion chamber through which carbon material may pass by gravity; closed troughs connected to the inlet ends of the tubes in each row; conveyer means in said troughs tor feeding carbon material therethrough to said tubes; connections between said stack and said troughs for creating a circulation of air in the latter; a trap chamber in said connections for preventing carbon particles from being drawninto said stack; and a liquid seal associated with the discharge ends of said tubes.

5. ln an apparatus for producing and reviviying ltering and decolorizing carbons,- a combustion chamber; a plurality of substantially vertical retort tubes arranged in rows, passing through saidl combustion chamber; a plurality of conveyers for feed in carbon material to the up er ends of said tubes; a predrying cham er; and an additional conveyer arranged to receive carbon material from said predrying chamber and to distribute it to said lirst named conveyers. v

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